ABSTRACT
The phenomenal growth of the grass-roots FTM (Female-to-Male) transsexual/transgender community over the past decade cannot be attributed to any one factor or even to a clutch of factors. I'm sure social scientists will have their theories, and perhaps someday it will be possible to look back through the eyes of historians who will interpret events and come reasonably close to the truth. But I am convinced that just as there is no simple etiology for the occurrence of transsexualism that applies to all those individuals who express its symptoms, the postulation of one simple explanation for the rising visibility of FTM transsexuals, transvestites, and transgen derists will undoubtedly generate immediate opposition from both within and without the FTM ranks. In fact, it is often that desire to rebut which I think characterizes marginalized people who are in the process of defining a collective voice.
